The April issue of our Bond Fund Intelligence, which was sent to subscribers Monday morning, features the stories, "Worldwide BF Assets Fall to $13.8 Trillion, Led by Brazil," which covers ICI's recent quarterly update on worldwide assets, and "Bond Fund Symposium '25: Brill, Salvay Talk Core BFs," which quotes from our recent conference in Newport Beach. BFI also recaps the latest Bond Fund News and includes our Crane BFI Indexes, which show that bond fund return dipped in March while yields were mostly higher. We excerpt from the new issue below. (Contact us if you'd like to see our latest Bond Fund Intelligence and BFI XLS spreadsheet, or our Bond Fund Portfolio Holdings data.)
BFI's lead article states, "Bond fund assets worldwide decreased in the latest quarter to $13.77 trillion, led lower by Brazil, Luxembourg, Germany, Ireland and the U.S. We review the ICI's 'Worldwide Regulated Open-End Fund Assets and Flows, Fourth Quarter 2024,' release and statistics below."
It continues, "ICI's report says, 'Worldwide regulated open-end fund assets, excluding assets in funds of funds, decreased 1.5% to $73.86 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.... The Investment Company Institute compiles worldwide regulated open-end fund statistics on behalf of the International Investment Funds Association (IIFA).'"
Our "BFS" article states, "Crane Data recently hosted its latest Bond Fund Symposium in Newport Beach, Calif. One session interviewed Invesco Investment Grade Portfolio Manager Matthew Brill, who tells us, 'A large West Coast asset manager had some outflows last year, and a lot of that just went into AGG. So AGG is the kind of the catch all ETF. It charges like three basis points and it's got something like $100 billion in it.' (Note: Thanks again to those who supported BFS! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the binder, PPTs and recordings via our 'Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.')"
It continues, "He explains, 'Vanguard's got their index funds with hundreds of billions, and yet each and every year ... the majority of [us active managers] are going to beat these funds. I think investors are in it just because they don't really know that active management should beat passive within fixed income."
Our first News brief, "Returns Inch Lower, Yields Up in March," says, "Bond fund returns were lower in March after rising in Jan. and Feb. Our BFI Total Index fell 0.25% over 1-month but rose 5.02% over 12 months. (Money funds rose 4.84% over 1-year as measured by our Crane 100 Index.) The BFI 100 decreased 0.10% in March and rose 5.38% over 12 mos. Our BFI Conservative Ultra-Short Index was up 0.29% over 1-month and 5.33% for 1-year; Ultra-Shorts rose 0.27% and 5.69%. Short-Term returned 0.36% and 6.13%, and Intm-Term rose 0.05% in March and 5.42% over 12 mos. BFI's Long-Term Index was down 0.28% and up 4.81%. High Yield returned -0.79% in March and 6.40% over 12 mos."
A second News brief, "Morningstar's, 'The Best Bond Funds' comments, 'The US bond market is having a good year: The Morningstar US Core Bond Index was up nearly 5% during the first quarter of 2025. '[I]nvestors took a risk-off approach to the markets during the quarter,' explains Morningstar Indexes strategist Dan Lefkovitz.'"
Our next News brief, "'TCW Files for Active Fixed Income ETF Conversion,' states, 'The TCW Group (TCW) ... has filed an initial registration statement in connection with the conversion of the TCW MetWest Intermediate Bond Fund (MWIIX/MWIMX) to an actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF).'"
A BFI sidebar, "Vanguard Launches Short ETF," tells us, "A release titled, 'Vanguard Expands Active Bond ETF Suite with Short Duration ETF,' states, 'Vanguard ... launched Vanguard Short Duration Bond ETF (VSDB), an active fixed income ETF managed by Vanguard Fixed Income Group. VSDB is designed to provide clients with current income and lower price volatility consistent with short-duration bonds.'"
Finally, another sidebar, "Barron's Problem w/ETFs," says, "Barron's writes on 'The Problem With Active Bond ETFs.' They explain, 'Actively managed bond exchange-traded funds are more popular than their stock counterparts. Yet they have a major flaw: Many of them trade at a premium that effectively makes them much pricier than they first appear.'"
